Kim Dotcom claims invention of two-factor authentication

Kim Dotcom has claimed the invention of two-factor authentication, and says he has the patent to prove it.

The loquacious baron of internet cloud locker Mega announced in a tweet on Wednesday that he is the inventor of two-factor authentication, just hours after Twitter announced support for the security measure.

Dotcom pointed to the "Methods for authorizing in data transmission systems" patent, which was filed with the US PTO in April 1998 by author Kim Schmitz (AKA Dotcom) and published two years later.

The patent appears to describe the principles behind two-factor authentication, namely using a "transaction authorization number" as a secondary layer of security to help authenticate a user with a service.

The patent cites 14 others, and has been referenced by a whopping 79 other patents to date, including ones filed by Research in Motion (now Blackberry), Sony Corporation, Citrix Systems, Microsoft Corporation, and HP.

Though the patent appears to be legit and could therefore be used in court, the bit-baron made an expansive gesture to America's tech titans while also pleading for help.

Google, Facebook, Twitter, I ask you for help. We are all in the same DMCA boat. Use my patent for free. But please help funding my defense.

The embattled Kiwi immigrant is currently fighting a mega court case with the US government over his former cloud file sharing service Megaupload, which was shut down and had its assets frozen by the US government working in tandem with law enforcement agencies around the world.

I'm an innovator, not a criminal. I live in the future, not the past. My innovations help people, not harm them. STOP persecuting me.

A full description of the ups, downs, and indeed side-to-side movements of this tangled case is available in a Dotcom-authored "whitepaper" which was published shortly after Kim dropped the patent bomb, or in our own coverage of the trials and travails of this most peculiar kiwi. ®